In the basket with Team SUI2 on Day 1 of the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett. Pilots Nicolas Tieche and Laurent Sciboz have covered 250km so far, and shared this amazing photo with us at Race HQ in Gladbeck.

The race is on! Gas-balloonists from a dozen countries launched early this morning at the start of what is aviation’s oldest and most prestigious gas-balloon race – the 60th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett.

Balloonists at the 60th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett will start to launch at 10pm CET this evening. Follow the action live online through this website – live tracking, webcams and news updates throughout the evening.

“It took months!” says air traffic controller Robin Lehmann about securing permissions from the 37 different countries that have granted permission to the competition's 24 balloons. We find out more about him and his job here at the competition...

It’s been a busy morning and early afternoon in Gladbeck as pilots prepare their balloons and baskets for launch. We invited ourselves round to Team USA-03 to see their new baby – a brand new lightweight Woerner basket...

Preparations are underway here at the Gladbeck for launch on Sunday 18 September 2016, with pilots arriving at the balloon airfield. One of the first jobs for each team is to fill about 100 sandbags in preparation for the launch and flight...

Pilots at the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett were today warned of possible thunderstorm activity in Italy, on their potential flight path later this week. We explain why that is such a serious issue for balloon pilots...

The pilot briefing on Saturday 17 September 2016, 30-hours ahead of the launch time, had everyone talking about the weather. We asked some of the pilots what they thought of the forecast and what their strategy might be.